


Safety First

by xDomino009x



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Asari baby, Domestic, F/F, Growing Up, Liara worries too much, Misgendering, Pronoun talk, Safe melding, Shepard is a cool dad, The Talk, safe sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-15 06:57:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11225682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xDomino009x/pseuds/xDomino009x
Summary: Shepard and Liara walk in on their teenage daughter and possible date-mate. Liara is surprised, Shepard amused and both are going to ensure the young couple know a few things before going any further





	Safety First

**Author's Note:**

> I realised I hadn't written anything for ages, so I'm sorry to anyone waiting for the longer fics to update but have a small dabble instead?

Val Shepard laughed and shook her head as Liara checked her emails for the umpteenth time that night. They were almost home, and with still no word from their daughter they had decided to check back early. They’d told her it would be seven when they got back, it was about half six now and still light as day outside.

“It’ll be fine,” Valerie told her, grabbing her bondmate’s hand and swinging it with their fingers laced together. Val had always liked the look of her pale, peachy skin against Liara’s blue. “What trouble could she get up to?”

Liara didn’t answer, instead she just stopped in the driveway to their home, the two story house they had moved into once Athi had outgrown the two bedroom apartment they’d been renting before. “Whose bike is that?” she asked, her voice soft and uncertain.

Val stared at it and shrugged. Hers was in the garage, along with the family car which Liara always seemed to regard with a certain degree of mistrust after the times she’d been rattled around in the mako like a marble in a tin can. She sighed and inspected it, checking for the registration on her Omni tool and hoping Athi hadn’t found her credit chit and made some valiant attempt to prove she wasn’t a child anymore.

The ex-soldier turned the key in the lock, wincing as it scraped against the pins, and then pressed her hand to the thermal scanner beside the door – so much security for a house in the middle of a busy city, but she supposed it was better safe than sorry.

The couple walked through their home, checking doorways with an almost military precision, looking to each other as if to check the coast was clear before proceeding onwards. When they came to the kitchen door, at the back of the house, they both stopped and stared.

Val surveyed the scene with an almost amused grin on her lips, while Liara looked mortified at her daughter and her apparently very good friend caught in an awkward kiss.

Shepard coughed.

Athi opened her eyes and looked to them, quickly pushing her asari friend away and backing hard into the kitchen counter with a thud and a hiss.

“Mum? Dad? I er…”

Val could see the excuses flickering through her daughter’s eyes as she watched her, still amused. But she cast her face into an irritated scowl and fixed the two young asari with a cold stare that would have made Athi shrink if she’d been a few years younger. Her friend though took a step back and swallowed audibly. “So who’s your friend Athi?” Valerie asked coolly.

“Maybe I should go?”

The asari made to leave, tugging their shirt back into place, and Val was even further amused to see they had missed out a button close to their throat when doing it up. Either they were a bad dresser, unlikely judging by the pressed designer blazer thrown over the back of a chair, or she and Liara had walked in on them just in time. She winced a little internally but managed to keep her face straight.

“Maybe you should,” she said nodding, but then she put a hand gently on top of the blazer and switched her gaze between her daughter and the guest, “but we have words for you two first.”

“Commander Shepard, Sir,” the asari stammered, “I’m Kali T’Vessa. I didn’t…” they stopped and took a moment to think about what they said next, “I mean it wasn’t Athi, she didn’t invite me. I just came when she said you’d gone out and -”

“Not another word T’Vessa.” Shepard walked over to them and pointed to the kitchen table. “Sit. Now.”

As the two of them exchanged glances and sat down anxiously at the table Liara caught Val’s arm. So far she had been a silent witness to all this, but now she looked less worried and more amused than anything. “Valerie I don’t know if this is too much…” She was smiling softly, knowing the game Valour was playing. The human shrugged and smiled back, running her hand down Liara’s forearm as she turned back to the children.

“I just want a word with my daughter’s girlfriend,” she announced to the room.

Kali looked awkward, but Athi corrected her father immediately: “Boyfriend. He likes male pronouns dad.”

Val took it in stride, nodding and throwing a glance to Kali to check he hadn’t been offended. He didn’t look it.

“Boyfriend then.”

She waited for a moment, for the suspense to build and giving the two kids time to worry what was coming next. “Now kids,” she asked, Liara coming to stand by her side as she took the chair opposite them, “how much do you know about safe melding?”


End file.
